Ascot Garden House
The Ascot Garden House is a project of setting and scale, and is as much about subtraction as it is addition. Sitting neatly on a North facing hillside corner at Ascot, the existing character Queenslander offered a traditional garden setting to the street. A jacaranda tree with child’s swing, a neatly pruned front hedge, and manicured turf overlooked by generous lattice enclosed verandahs. In contrast, stepping down the hill to the North, an unforgiving verandah enclosure, replica heritage extension, and cramped build under divorced the house from the back yard.
The original brief called for further extension; creating a path to the yard, and connection between levels. Critiquing the use of the existing spaces, and in turn the brief, resulted instead in a subtractive approach; cut the extensions out and pull the garden in. The diagram is a house of two characters. The original house, lightweight and elevated, and the garden house, grounded, shaded and landscaped. Viewed from uphill the original residence maintains its proud position and garden setting. Extending this green line out, a new garden datum is established to the rear – a landscaped roof garden and terrace, containing the new outdoor room extension below.
The previous extensions are peeled back to shell only – maintaining the appearance of a louvred sun room within the existing house. With the removal of the floor a double height volume is created, drawing light and air to the ground floor living spaces, and affording visual and physical connections between levels and out to the yard. A generous, north facing double-height living space, respectfully shared with the rich character above.
A garden room, allowing room for the garden.
Featured: The Local Project
Status: Completed
Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones
Builder: Rycon Constructions
Structural Engineer: Westera Partners
Film by Ravens At Odds
